Blues complete home-and-home sweep of Avalanche behind Legace

ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Thanks to Manny Legace, the Colorado
Avalanche are glad their season series with the St. Louis Blues
is over.

Legace made 33 saves and Keith Tkachuk and Lee Stempniak scored
power-play goals as the Blues completed a home-and-home sweep of
the Avalanche with a 2-0 victory.

After leading St. Louis to a 4-2 victory with a 30-save effort
at Colorado on Friday, Legace was even better in this one.

"He's making big saves when we need it," Stempniak said. "He's
either stealing games for us or keeping us in games."

"Legace has had three great games against us this year and he is
a big factor in the net," said Colorado coach Joel Quenneville,
who formerly guided St. Louis. "The quality of our shots was
not as high as we would like, but he was very efficient and he
did a good job around the net."

In posting his first shutout of the season and 14th career, the
netminder turned aside 12 shots in the first period, eight in
the second and 13 in the third.

"The guys are having faith in me and it makes a world of
difference," said Legace, who is 5-0-3 in his last eight starts.
"And when they are confident, confidence grows."

"Our goaltender is playing tremendously, and when you are
winning, goaltending is always a big part of the equation,"
Blues coach Andy Murray said. "But I'm not a big fan of the
word 'confidence.' If you play well, you feel well. Manny's
feeling well about himself because he is playing well."

Legace, who raised his lifetime record against Colorado to
11-1-0, got all the support he needed 7 1/2 minutes into the
game, when Tkachuk converted a power-play opportunity for his
10th goal of the season. With less than three minutes to go in
the middle period, Stempniak doubled the lead with his 11th
tally.

"We're finally doing the things we should be doing," Tkachuk
said. "It's been a while coming."

Doug Weight notched his seventh assist in the season series,
which the Blues captured, three games to one.

After picking up a pair of assists on Friday, defenseman Dennis
Wideman added another for the Blues, who have won five of six,
earned at least one point in eight straight and improved to
5-2-3 under Murray.

"To be successful in this league, you have to be able to do
different things to win," Murray said. "Tonight, we won with
defense and special teams. Our blocked-shot count is going
through the roof and guys are sacrificing themselves to get
results."

"We showed a lot of what happens when bounces go the wrong way,
and now we are seeing what happens when bounces go the right
way," Legace added.

Peter Budaj stopped 20 shots for Colorado, which has lost three
straight.

"In the last couple of games, we've had our opportunities," said
Avalanche captain Joe Sakic, who had his three-game
goal-scoring streak snapped. "We just have not found a way to
put the puck in the net."

"The effort has been there, but you can define what we have
given up our last three games by what we have given up through
our penalty-killing," Quenneville said.

From the right side of the net, Tkachuk deposited the rebound of
defenseman Eric Brewer's blast from the left point past Budaj
for a 1-0 lead.

"They are definitely more active in front of the net than what
we've seen of them recently," Budaj said.

During another power play in the second, Stempniak slapped a
cross-ice feed from Wideman by Budaj with 2:56 remaining in the
session for a two-goal bulge.

"It's great when coach is putting that much confidence in you on
the power play," Stempniak said. "And the power play is
clicking."